I didnt say teleport haphazardly. I said…youre a Mvc2 player, right? Then you know what I mean. And also, Id sacrifice a hailstorm, to get at Storm anyway. She wont be able to do anymore hailstorms after that one. Mainly, because Spirals swords will nick her while shes going up. Spiral/Doom/Sent is not a good matchup against Mags, cause Mags has Sent in a web, infinites.etc. As far as Sent chipping, well…thats not how I play!!! So, I wouldnt advise something so gay!!! My advise is to be versatile wih her, not just chipping away at some aggravated opponent. Yeah, they’ll be ag, cause no one wants to play someone who chips all day…i.e Clockwack, Mo Traps, and all those combo-challenged players. Either team is okay, depending on your methods against your opponents. AND, havent you seen Stride/Doom abuse Mags/Psy before? I know you have, so she cant get em’ if the rocks are knocking her back. I never said anything about trapping, I said use all of her moves to keep her mobile. I dont do that geeky, dont-know-how-to-win-with-combos-so-I’ll-chip-to-win-in-tournaments-play, thats not my style. I like to confuse peps with her, not aggravate peps with her.
Good stuff. thanks!
Playing against BeaTs’ sick Mags yesterday, and it seemed I was most comfortable with Spiral/Sent/Cyke against Mags/Psy. He still beasted me plenty though.
Also:
Rev, playing by your own little set of house rules is fine. But don’t confuse it with what’s effective to win, and, more importantly, don’t try to pass it off as useful advice. Also, when it comes to cool combos, Spiral/Sent is better at it than Spiral Doom. So if you want to get flashy, try it.
I’d have to agree, playing to ‘not aggravate peps with her’ is not really playing Spiral by her best. A good spiral will make it a goal to piss the other person off and make them make mistakes. It’s a trapping team, and so it works just like Strider/Doom-- other player makes mistakes, get hit, and next thing he knows, he forgets to n. jump over spiral/sent ground trap on the 3rd sword to get out. That panic-mode is what will kill even decent players.
As for best starts with Spiral against Mag, you have the following:
a) n. jump straight up and block (or call AAA midway if you feel lucky): This evades c. short completely and psy. You can get crossed up, though, once you land and hit by s. jab if you aren’t quick to block.
b) n. jump with j. jab: This also evades c. short from what I’ve seen and you MIGHT overhead Mag if you’re good. You may still lose to s. jab if you’re not fast enough and you are more susceptible to psy/aaa.
c) n. jump backwards + block: You will lose to c. short, but you are less susceptible to crossup and overheads. You will also be able to better defend against a Mag that does sj. ad df sj. short.
d) n. jump backwards + j. jab: More offensive than n. jump backwards, but you will still lose to c. short. Defend much better against any offensive move Mag puts out.
e) s. jab: stops a Mag that will try to sj. ad df short you in the beginning of the match, but that’s about it. You will lose to almost everything else he can throw out there.
f) block low, then call AAA: This will work well particularly against Mag+psy, but leaves you open to Mag sj. ad df short or a crossup from overhead.
Personally, I use choices A and F the most (like 75% of the time), followed by C and D. The other starters are ‘gimmicky’ and work only if you know your opponent well enough.
Thanks. I started neutral jumping once I realised the switch trick was gone, I was used to block low at the arcade for so long it became a habit :p.
Neutral Jump+ counter call (after psy) commando works well.
Luv the thread, clear detailed and very informational. O.K. now I’m looking for some profesional input here please…
I’m working on, and see promise in team Spiral, Cyclops, BlackHeart. In that order.
Banshee (or any other Spiral vets) have you ever messed around or gave thought to this team setup? I havn’t played too seriously with them yet, but have alot of ideas. They all seem to benifit from eachothers assist.
Spiral doesn’t have alot of options for traps with BlackHeart I think, but his anti air is good in that it strikes the opponet where ever they are, and helps keep the opponet grounded. Furthermore with it’s homing ability Spiral can play a few cross up tricks with the aid of teleportation. I think BlackHeart helps here play a aggresive game because the opponet can’t run too much. Now with Cyclops anti air assist, Spiral gets a combo into free level 3 super if you land a c. Short. Cyclops assist also can help set up breathroom for her and give her guard break potential too, though it’s not the quickest anti air I agree.
Blackheart benifits from Spiral. His psuedo pressure combined with Spirals projectile assist makes for good guard damage. he can also run away, control the air and build meter for Spiral to use. Black heart gets infinte with Cyclops assist.
Cyclops is great at hold his own when forced to fight. He has this advantage over the likes of Comando and meterless Cable. Also I think his health is a bit better then Psylocks. So picking him as the anti air assist for this team seems to work out better. He has great pressure options combined with Spirals projectile, and can really work the opponets health whether they are guarding or not.
I think I have a solid team here. But I havn’t really been able to test against top players yet or scrubs for that matter lol Any constructive input would be appreciated!
Mind eloborating a lil’ bit for me? Sounds like a very benifical thing!
Good team, Onyx, but I think BH benefits greatly from meter and Cyke AAA, so maybe he should be second.
For Spiral/BH, cover BH by tossing knives, and once you reload, toss a knife and see what the opponent does, then go for COS, or call BH again and toss knives after superjumping to bring them back down, or continue the ground trapping.
I wouldn’t recommend trapping from close with dashing s.fierce. Stay far. Stay safe 
thank you Banshee. I can defently understand why you would say stay away i.e. online. Jeezez christ it’s living hell up close spiral versus that mess lol
I’m understanding you say BlackHeart benefits the most for the built meter in this team. So Spiral is his battery then. Makes since. Question: Black heart’s anti-air pillar special XX qcf DoubleKicks Super (sorry forgot the names) can the opponet escape this set-up in some way? I noticed It does nice guard damgage to them, when they block s Spirals projectile assist.
Even with the switch trick there, normal jump evades c. short completely, I believe because normal jump straight up has zero frames of startup. But jumping backwards does not start instantly, so you can get hit with c. short on the way up.
Its not reliable and you need a straight launcher.
Semi reliable midscreen when rocket punch puts them close to the corner.
You can also do Launch and Spiral proj. sj RP, LK, Falling HP, relaunch or tag - tag depends on how the assist hits / how high. Hard to explain - try it yourself in training mode.
RE BH doing Inferno xx Armageddon ( qcf +2k) - its escapable - look up
the Advanced tactics 1 video ( www.zachd.com/mvc2 )
You can try and time it so spirals assist hits just after the inferno - might prevent the jump out.
Personally I don’t rate Spiral / BH that highly. Not having cable or sent really reduces your damage output.
Yeah, if your opponent DHCs with the right super, Spiral just wasted 3 meters, and can be hit during the activation frames.
D.HP and combo followup works well, and if the opponent DHCs during HSF, you can cancel you normal hit with a teleport.
Here’s one combo:
Teleport above Sent during HSF, n.j.down Fierce, land, c.lk, s.mk, call Sent ground, s.hp xx activate lvl3, dash c.lk, c.hk, SJ. lk-mk-immediate HP throw (on all other characters, you need to do SJ lk-mk-slight delay- HP LVL3 throw).
Alternatively, you can start the same combo and, after s.HP, DHC with QCF+PP XX appropriate 2nd character’s super. Good if spiral needs to be tagged out for whatever reason, or if 1 or 2 levels will kill Sent.